New Champion Owner

[graphicpunk]

A couple of weekends ago I picked this bad boy up. Its a '85 18ft Champion fish and ski boat and I instantly fell in love. Not sure what it is with these old school Champions but its a timeless design. We have had people already come up to us and be like "nice boat". Yeah not bad for an '85 :D

Anyway it only had a 90 horse on it but I can get it up to 40mph with two people and full tank of gas. There are no leaks but the boat does need a little TLC. So far I have been going through the wiring and getting rid of wires no longer used etc. Also the previous owner said the Bilge pump worked here and there. Since I have had the boat the bilge pump has never worked so I just replaced that tonight.

This is my first bass boat and I can't wait for the years to come spent fishing in this bad boy!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7102/7211531376_e0e5aa5bf7_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7233/7211530946_6132de0c35_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7233/7211531668_a857b1a934_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8143/7211532006_0456c45d4b_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7236/7211531804_ac4242bae7_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7235/7211531454_6543e0dbeb_b.jpg

And the video I took of the bilge pump no working
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVVMCE8RTB4&feature=youtu.be

Aldo got a short video of my wife driving the boat. Silly women they don't want to just gun it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp91An5b5Jo&list=HL1337926647&feature=mh_lolz

[rtlgator]

Great shape for an 85..... best of luck with it....looking at the pictures it looks like prop needs some work on blades, if you can get it reworked and you might pick up another MPH or two....

[remington]

What that baby REALLY needs is a 200 to make her sing! Watch the Champion Running Wild Video, most of those are 18'4's. I also agree to get that prop cleaned up.

[remington]

and congrats...........

[fishjunkie]

Wow nice boat, good luck looks great!

[graphicpunk]

Yeah it could use a new prop and at minimum a 150 is in the future. The boat is only rated for 175hp but it sounds like you can give it a little more. So far my wife and I have LOVED it!

[fishjunkie]

wow looks great good luck!!!

[fishjunkie]

wow looks great good luck!

[graphicpunk]

Waxed her up a bit and brought back some of the shine/sparkle!

[graphicpunk]

Bah the attachments photos don't do any justice!

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5075/7368830608_f48d6c75a7_h.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8004/7368830644_f3e22ddc40_h.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8159/7368830568_46706b57d5_b.jpg

[rtlgator]

Looks darn good to me........Nice Job

[remington]

Sweet.................

[leskos01]

Nice boat........what's she rated for?

[copper]

Good lookin Champ, good luck with her.

[graphicpunk]

Nice boat........what's she rated for?


175hp but I was told I could put a 200hp on there. Eventually I want to get a bigger motor for it. At minimal I will go 150hp.

[Darth VMAX]

I would stay within the rated HP max. You could be in for costly trouble if you ever got into an accident and it was discovered you are over your max. If sticking with a Merc you are only looking at a few mph difference between a 175 and 200 (unless your talking newer motors) anyways...

[graphicpunk]

Yeah I probably wont even go over 150hp and it will probably be an older motor anyway. There are a lot of places up here that rebuild older motors and sell them at reasonable prices. Plus I could probably trade in my current motor to lower the price even a bit more. I dont need to spend 10s of thousands of dollars on a new one that is for sure.

[remington]

A 150 will get you in the low 60's if set up properly.

[graphicpunk]

Low 60's would be fast enough for me. 50mph would probably be fast enough for me!

[Darth VMAX]

hahaha...you say that now. Just wait,the speed bug will hit (even if its just a little bit). A late 80's-90 or 91 Evinrude XP175 would look PERFECT on that blue boat (both color and genre'). She would flat out SCOOT too!
http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/m/me6ov-GcdGFpi0pViGy0CZA/140.jpg


My .02, grand pappy's hand rails need to GO! Replace them with some smaller Eddie Marine rails.

http://www.eddiemarine.com/xl/290-08.jpg

Here is your blue:

http://www.eddiemarine.com/xl/275-50.jpg

see more styles at: http://www.eddiemarine.com/store/cart.php?m=product_list&c=225

[graphicpunk]

So I had my starter go out on me a couple weekends ago so I finally got the new starter last night. Just thought I would share my replacement of the starter in my '87 Mercury 90hp.

Pic of the bad starter. You can see the spring and the washer are totally gone. Not sure where they went.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8018/7590103574_63dd54fa6a_c.jpg

A different view:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8021/7590103322_3406f19e1f_b.jpg

New starter in and you can see the comparison of the starters:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8144/7590103408_198a8e04a2_c.jpg

The starter install complete and after a couple tests:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8426/7590103468_9ba30ac3ca_c.jpg

And of course a video of it in action to boot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WhBzZ9xafo&feature=plcp

[graphicpunk]

Well its been a winter and I have been piling up some goodies for the Champ as I am going into my second year of owning this sweet brand of boats.

This year I got a new trolling motor and a couple depth finders. Still on the todo list for this year is getting some windshields and batteries!

Here is the new Minn Kota Edge 55lbs trolling motor. So glad to get that older Minn Kota off there.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/476929_10151852091537678_1883928760_o.jpg

Another shot:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/920621_10151852096322678_1337330954_o.jpg

Last Friday night I started on installing the depth finders and some rewiring.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/473314_10151860306637678_1031393218_o.jpg

I had bought a Hummingbird PiranaMax 190c for the bow but I got a PiranaMax 150 for free with the trolling motor. So I am going with the 150 at the bow and the 190c at the console.

190c
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/920497_10151860342117678_1921038175_o.jpg

150
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/459950_10151860342662678_1265812624_o.jpg

Cleaned up nicely:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/479124_10151860376542678_1000034393_o.jpg

I still need to hook up the transducers but I am in no hurry seeing that we are still getting snow up here in MN and lakes are still frozen.

[graphicpunk]

Took the boat out of the garage this afternoon and did a little work on the rims.

Before
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/919203_10151886291217678_431341813_o.jpg

After
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/901190_10151886291932678_361706373_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/964782_10151886291312678_1134175416_o.jpg

She's coming together
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/463920_10151886294912678_308164113_o.jpg

Just need some windshields!

[DD's]

Looks great.

[gonefishing7903]

nice progress, thats a sharp rig thats just gonna get better looking with more polishing on the apple so to speak

[graphicpunk]

We are going to get it detailed this year however there are a lot of holes and scratches here and there. I am sure the boat has changed many hands before I got it. I am just in love with it and trying to make it as nice as I can :)

On the todo list:

Windshields
Detailing
New carpet
New batteries
New rub rail
New CD/MP3 player
The bunks on the trailer need to be redone

and the long shot:
a 175hp motor

Thanks for the compliments. You dont see to many '85 Champs running around Minnesota! I love it!

[remington]

175 Yammy with a Phase 3 Kit. Now DAT will wake the old girl up.